Saturday, April 17, 2010

Small Sewing

One of the things that I like about sewing is the instant gratification factor. It's awesome that in an afternoon or in a couple evenings you can have something to show for your efforts. And lately, given the toddler situation around here, quick bursts of crafting time is all I really have. So it is no wonder, that I am going for my sewing machine a bit more lately. A couple of my more recent sewing projects, all though hardly timely, are below.

I made two of these 'He-Molly' Monkeys for gifts last Christmas. One I finished (in time) for my cousin's baby and the other was for Elliott...who got it closer to his birthday at the beginning of February. The pattern is basically a boy version of the Molly Monkey. I didn't realize at the time, given my more limited internet-investigating time as of late, that the designer has a boy version for sale, called the Mikey Monkey. Oops. I totally didn't meant to try and get away with not buying the boy pattern, I just saw this one, thought it was cute and thought I would improvise a boy one. However, because she does sell a boy pattern and out of respect to the designer's work, I'm not going to go into details here as to what I did to change things up. It will be more of a show and tell kind of post.

However, a couple of things I will tell you about is how I put the face and head together. Since I knew I wanted to embroider the face (easily), I decided to attach the face pieces first and do the embroidery flat, then sew the whole head together rather than the other way around. I also used some Wonder Under on the face panel and ear panels to stick them to the face and ear pieces really well, then embroidered the details on top.

I was able to get some remnant flannel at Joann's for the body and face, but otherwise his clothes are all from the scrap bin. I think the two monkeys together cost a whopping $4. :)

Another relatively quick and cute sewing project was a pair of Cutie Booties for Nonnahs's little girl, Bean. These came from Amy Butler's Little Stitches book and were pretty ingenious to put together. The only trouble I had was due to my decision to work on these after Elliott went to bed and being a little brain fried. With clear thoughts, these probably would have taken me half the time they did.

I made the six month size since she was approximately six months at the time these were gifted. And in looking through the scrap bin again for appropriate fabric pieces, I discovered the perfect selection: scraps left over from Nonnahs's wedding quilt! I especially like the red on the inside :)

Anyway, I can't comment at all on the fit, but they are super cute and would make a great shower gift for someone special.

Speaking of shower gifts (nice segue don't you think ;), I recently put together this set for a co-worker of mine. She LOVES (seriously, in all caps) Tinkerbell. She had even contemplated making a Tinkerbell bedding set for her baby's crib before deciding it just wasn't something she was willing to take on right now. She ended up opting for purple butterflies and I had a great time putting a little set together with 4 Tinkerbell print flannel burp cloths and a Tinkerbell "Cora blanket" (flannel on one side and regular cotton on the other). For both the burp cloths and the blanket I was able to pair a Tinkerbell print with something else so it wouldn't be 'too much' and also tie into their purple butterfly theme.

And I have to say, I think I may have turned a corner in my crafting. I used to rarely, if ever, make something for someone else that I didn't also really like myself. Not to say that I didn't make something specifically for them, just that I had to like it, too. Mostly this was because I had to enjoy the process of making it and if it wasn't something I liked, I used to have trouble getting through it. Anyway, I am far from a Tinkerbell person. I don't have any problem with Tinkerbell, I'm just more of a Winnie-the-Pooh kinda gal. But, I can't tell you how much fun I had with this project. I was so excited about it the whole time I worked on it. I just knew she would really like the prints and I think the fabric prints came together well. And the best part? She (and her husband!) ended up being as excited about them as I was! :)

Each project was so lovely and special. Great work, Jen. I love that feelin too, the one when youbeatch the joy of making transfer to become the joy of receiving. Funny too because I never was a Peter pan fan but the boys are in love with the Disney book and it is catching on. That tink, ;).

Oh, goodness, how cute is your He-Molly! And please suffer no more guilt about your clever improvisation. I do stuff like that all the time with patterns, so you are certainly welcome to innovate and share what you did. I totally get that a lot of crafters will modify the pattern to fit their needs, which is great. I've seen Molly-pups, Molly-cats, super-Mollys, etc...The draw of the Mikey pattern is that it also includes a bunch of boy accessories like the pirate get up, baseball hat, and newsboy hat that the Molly pattern does not have, in addition to the boy clothes. Great job with yours!